Call to penalise schools that ‘cherry pick’

Large numbers of disadvantaged children are being excluded by Limerick second-level schools hiding behind their admissions policies, a local principal told TDs and senators yesterday.

Noel Malone, principal of Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom, warned that a proposal in draft legislation to allow schools to continue to set aside places for past pupils’ children would allow such practices to continue and penalise those with open enrolment systems.

He told an Oireachtas Education Committee hearing on the scheme of a school admission bill published last autumn by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn that a common application process used in Limerick is flawed.